Theatre Nova's "Clutter" explores the traps of false memories

Fri, 03/31/2017 - 10:30am by christopherporter

Much like a plaster casting mold, most modern American plays squeeze themselves into ready-made stylistic and thematic models that have a good track record. The styles can often be pinpointed back to one or two particularly significant behemoths that are scattered throughout the history of the American theater.

One such theatrical prototype is the Memory Play. It was initially popularized by playwright Tennessee Williams in the preface for his 1945 drama The Glass Menagerie. As Williams described it, “When a play employs unconventional techniques, it is not, or certainly shouldn’t be, trying to escape its responsibility of dealing with reality, or interpreting experience, but is actually or should be attempting to find a closer approach, a more penetrating and vivid expression of things as they are.”

The playwrights Pinter (Betrayal), Friel (Dancing at Lughnasa), and Leonard Jr. (The Diviners) are all known for their Memory Plays. Each examined different subjects, but all used the power of characters retelling their memories and dreams to exaggerate details in order to increase the emotional impact of those stories.

Clutter, the new show at Theatre Nova written by Brian Cox, is a world premiere Memory Play about the traps of false memories that we set for ourselves by taking part in nostalgic rumination.

Let's Play: Skyline's "The Diviners," Thurston Players' "Game On!," Pass the Hat's "The Know Gun Show" & Pioneer's "Wizard of Oz"

Thu, 03/23/2017 - 1:30pm by amy

It sometimes feels like the only things more popular than U-M football in Ann Arbor are theater productions. From major UMS events at the Power Center to Kickshaw Theatre's experimental "Here's to You, Here's to Me" at local bars, the stage -- wherever it may be -- is always alive in A2.

The community and school theater scene is especially active, and this weekend alone there are four plays opening: Tappan Players' Hello, Dolly! (full Pulp feature here), the Skyline Theatre Arts Program's The Diviners, the Thurston Players' original play Game On!, and Pass the Hat Promotion's The Know Gun Show. And next month, the Pioneer Theatre Guild presents The Wizard of Oz.

Below are descriptions of the shows provided by the theaters and production companies.

Skyline Theatre Arts Program presents The Diviners

Winner of the American College Theatre Festival, Jim Leonard's haunting play The Diviners is a moving story about a disturbed young boy and his relationship with a conflicted former preacher at a time when water and faith were in short supply.

The play takes place in southern Indiana during the Depression era as the charismatic CC Showers drifts into town and meets Buddy, a gentle but emotionally disturbed boy who is phobic of water yet has the gift of divining water. Buddy’s protective sister, Jennie Mae, is caught in the web of their friendship as she develops a crush on Showers.

"This show explores faith, love, and community at a time when hope is almost gone," said Anne-Marie Roberts, Skyline department chair for theater arts and director of The Diviners. "Everyone of us has moments of doubt -- when our beliefs are tested. This play explores those moments and asks the audience some hard, but enlightening questions.”

The three main characters help each other divine for truth and faith. As the townspeople try to force the preacher to return to a way of life he no longer believes in, CC, Buddy and Jennie Mae are pushed to tragic consequences.

The play features Theo Billups as Showers; Isaac Mangold as Buddy; and Claire de Vries as Buddy’s sister, Jennie Mae. Theo, a Skyline senior, and Claire, a Skyline freshman, recently received Superior Ratings (the highest level) in Acting at the Michigan Thespian Society State Festival.

“It is very exciting to get to play this preacher who is helping the young man to deal with the loss of his mother and literally clean himself of his past,” said Billups, who has performed in nine shows while at Skyline. “This is my last play during high school, and I am so happy to get to pay such a complex part.”

"The Diviners" - March 24 and 25 at 7:30 pm, and March 26 at 2:30 pm at Skyline High School, 2552 N. Maple Rd., Ann Arbor. $10 for general admission; $8 for students (with valid ID) and senior citizens. Tickets available at showtix4u.com and at the performances.

The Thurston Players present Game On!

Everyone wishes their favorite fictional characters could come to life. When the thesis project of a group of computer programming grad students develops a mysterious bug, gamers everywhere get their wish -- and then some. Video game characters from every known game are suddenly running rampant around Ann Arbor!

Some are friendly, but others have malicious plans in store for the town -- even taking over Michigan Stadium! A group of video game enthusiasts must team up with some of their favorite characters to fight a boss battle of the ages and get everything back to normal.

Can they beat the game? Find out in the 2017 Thurston Players' original play "Game On!"

This is the troupe's 43rd annual production. Thurston Players date back to 1974. That year a group of Thurston Elementary School parents decided to write and perform an original musical comedy to benefit the Thurston PTO. Now volunteers gather annually to create an original plot for the play, select songs, write lyrics, and choreograph dance numbers, all leading up to three exciting performances of this original musical comedy each March.

Originally the cast consisted of Thurston parents, teachers and other adult neighbors. In 1997 Thurston students joined the cast. As these children grew up and went on to middle school, high school, and even college, some returned to participate in the plays, making this a truly multi-generational group.

Now a typical cast runs well over 100 actors ranging from age 5 to 70, along with many other volunteers who work backstage and in other production areas.

"Game On!" - March 23 and 24 at 7:30 pm, and March 25 at 7 pm at Clague Middle School, 2616 Nixon Rd, Ann Arbor. $10 for adults; $5 for students. Tickets available at the door. More info at thurstonplayers.org.

Pass the Hat Promotions presents The Know Gun Show

Divisive political topics should be explored through art, according to Ann Arbor writer and producer, Catherine Zudak.

Zudak developed The Know Gun Show with lots of input from area writers, storytellers, and actors.

“It’s been exciting working with so many talented people,” Zudak said. “Even in Ann Arbor opinions on gun ownership differ widely. We’ve had some great debates while working on the script.”

The Know Gun Show kicks off with The Flower Girl. The short play weaves together excerpts from work by playwrights, k. b., Brian Cox, Marc Holland, and Jack Tiernan and features actors, John Drauss, Cydney Heed, Jamie Jee, and Jean Leverich. The Flower Girl takes an absurdist look at a gun culture that divorces gun violence and gun ownership.

“More guns in circulation mean more death and injuries. Acknowledging that reality is not an attack on anyone’s Second Amendment rights,” she said.

The Know Gun Show aims to entertain as well as provoke. Bob Skon joins the show, playing some covers and original songs, including "Not Great at Any One," to keep the energy high and fun.

“'Not Great at Any One' is a great anthem for middle age,” Zudak said, “I’ve seen the public debate on gun violence deadlocked for 30 years, but the song reminds me to keep at it."

The show’s finale includes tales of gun violence from members of the Ann Arbor Storytellers Guild. Lyn Daviage considers whether anyone could have prevented the murder of family friends. Judy Schmidt offers a darkly comic story of recreational shooting gone wrong. Patti Smith remembers a remarkable young man lost to gun violence, and Zudak regrets an accidental shooting that was no accident.

“To quote a common phrase, 'Guns don't kill people, but they do make it a whole lot easier.'" Zudak said.

Special guests, 5th Ward Councilman, Chip Smith, and Dr. Andrew Zweifler of Physicians for the Prevention of Gun Violence, will provide brief remarks on efforts to prevent gun violence.

"The Know Gun Show" - March 26 at 4 pm at Ann Arbor Civic Theatre, 322 W. Ann St., Ann Arbor. The event is free with a $10 suggested donation. Proceeds benefit gun violence prevention. Visit Pass the Hat Promotions' Facebook page for more info.

Pioneer Theater Guild presents The Wizard of Oz

We’re off to see the wizard! Join Dorothy Gale, a small town girl from Kansas who gets swept up in a tornado and lands in the magical land of Oz, in her quest to the Emerald City to get back home! Along the way, she will meet many new friends who will accompany her in her adventure down the Yellow Brick Road. But the trip is not always smooth and straightforward. Dorothy and her friends will encounter evil witches, flying monkeys, and lions, tigers, and bears, oh my!

Based on the beloved L. Frank Baum children’s novel and the iconic 1938 film starring Judy Garland, this adventure will have you and your whole family enjoying Dorothy’s magical trip in a land of endless imagination and song, with places like Munchkinland, the Haunted Forest, and the glamorous Emerald City. You will also be bouncing in your seat with the peppy score by Arlen and Harburg that features song like “Ding! Dong! The Witch is Dead!,” “If I Only Had a Brain/Heart/Nerve,” and the treasured “Over the Rainbow.”

So join PTG in this fun and festive adaptation of an audience-favorite musical that will have you leaving the theater reminding yourself that there really is “no place like home.”

The Wizard of Oz will be directed by Kyle McClellan, with Grace Bydalek (assitant director), Daniel Schwartzberg (music director), Cole Abod (assistant music director), Claire Crause (choreographer), Richard Alder (orchestra director). The script is by L. Frank Baum, with music and lyrics by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg.

"The Wizard of Oz" - April 22, 28, and 29 at 7:30 pm, and April 23 and 30 at 2 pm at Pioneer High School, 601 W. Stadium Blvd., Ann Arbor,. $15 for adults; $10 for students, 65+ seniors, and Pioneer High School staff. Tickets will be available in advance at showtix4u.com beginning April 12 and at the door. More info at ptguild.org.

Cheers! Kickshaw Theatre's "Here's to You, Here's to Me" is a play masquerading as a drinking party (& vice-versa)

Thu, 03/23/2017 - 8:00am by christopherporter

Since it began in January, Kickshaw Theatre is known for putting together unconventional productions. Lynn Lammers’ first show, The Electric Baby, was performed in the equivalent of a warehouse and centered on a woman grieving the death of her grown daughter. The show begins when the woman storms off into traffic and causes a cab to crash into a pole.

In contrast, in the current production, Here's to You, Here's to Me, Kickshaw is hosting a 30-minute drinking party at various local bars around Ann Arbor.

To clarify, this particular "party" is devised by the actors, but this is still as informal as theater can get. “The show started with just the concept of toasting, lots of research, and a discussion about what people want/need from theater at this moment in time,” Lammers told Pulp in a recent interview.

Which explains the improv, the jam sessions, and the alcohol. Oh, the alcohol. For really, what would a show about toasting be if the actors and the audience didn’t all have copious amounts of alcohol on hand throughout?

The show features three actors who have a background in making nontraditional theater: Ramona Burns, Natalie Rose Sevick, and Aral Gribble. “The actors will be out mingling. There’s less formality, We want it to feel like hanging out with friends. Friends who happen to be really talented performers,” Lammers said. And they are, both talented and exuberant.

When you enter, the audience’s chairs are set up in a circle around a stand with a large jug of something that could hypothetically pass for water in the center. The actors explain that the show will last until the last drop of liquid in the bottle has been downed. A few of the seats dotted throughout the audience are reserved for the actors, who sporadically pop up and down from the chairs as the desire to speak or sing hits them.

The show centers on the concept of toasting, so naturally, the actors start with a review of the history of toasting, beginning in neanderthal times when two drunken cave-people accidentally clinked glasses and the concept of celebrating with a toast was born. The history lesson also includes life on the Oregon Trail (well, at least life in the video game The Oregon Trail) and a discussion of why we toast: toasting to failure, toasting to friends, and toasting to life in all its varied forms.

“It’s a very warm, intimate show," Lammers said. "At times, the show is silly fun. At other times, it’s about thoughtful connection. And sometimes it’s bombastic, raucous celebration.”

If you can, plan to get there half an hour early so that you can buy a drink to toast with during the show and to talk a bit with the actors. As Lammers succinctly put it, “It’s 30 minutes, 10 dollars, and you can definitely wear whatever the heck you want.”

Toby Tieger has directed, acted in, and written plays over the last 10 years, and sees theater as often as he can. He is a bookshelver/processor with the Ann Arbor District Library.

"Here's to You, Here's to Me" runs Thursdays - Sundays, March 16 - April 2 at the Heidelberg Club Above, Arbor Brewing Company Brewpub, and Agave Tequila Bar. Tickets are $10, showtimes and locations vary. More information is at kickshawtheatre.org. For a behind-the-scenes look at how this show was put together, read our article "Here’s to Collaboration: Behind the Scenes of the Kickshaw Lab."

All Dolled Up: Tappan Players’ “Hello, Dolly!"

Wed, 03/22/2017 - 11:30am by christopherporter

The current political climate impacts us in ways big and small -- like factoring into the decision of whether or not to ditch the “Motherhood March” number in Tappan Players’ new production of Hello, Dolly

“We were going to cut it for time,” said the show’s co-producer Lisa Richardson. “But after the Women’s March, we decided to put it back in.”

Tappan Players is a student-run theater company that stages one big musical each year. An outgrowth of the Burns Park Players, TP is now in its 27th year, and Hello, Dolly features about 80 Tappan Middle School students in the cast, more than 30 in the crew, and 15 in the orchestra. The company was born out of a desire to give kids who age out of Burns Park Players a chance to keep learning about theater and be part of a show.

“There’s a certain amount of magic that happens,” said Richardson. “When I’ve made sure the director (Anna Martinsen) has what she needs, and the business part gets done, I spend a good chunk of time sitting in the audience during rehearsals. … And watching these kids who started out shy and unfamiliar with the process start blossoming right before your eyes -- I think of it as a magic place, where kids get to be creative and free, and no one’s judging them for it.”

Integrated Identities: "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" at the Power Center

Sun, 03/12/2017 - 5:55pm by christopherporter

When two ordinary, scribbled-on pieces of paper in an envelope magically morph into a miserable woman’s key to happiness -- and your heart pounds as you hawkishly, breathlessly watch the precarious letter being set down, picked up, walked around the stage, and handed off -- that’s the power of live theater.

But it takes pros to achieve that level of emotionally tense stage magic, and when it comes to interpreting Martin McDonagh’s work, there may be none on Earth that can match Ireland’s renowned Druid Theatre Company, which performed The Beauty Queen of Leenane March 9-11 at the Power Center, courtesy of University Musical Society.

In the play, 40-year-old Maureen (Aisling O’Sullivan) lives alone with her demanding, manipulative 70-year-old mother Mag (Marie Mullen). When handsome former neighbor Pato Dooley (Marty Rea) briefly returns from London, where he works in construction, Maureen gets what seems like her last chance at love and a different life.

McDonagh’s script feels both Shakespearean, with its misunderstandings and intercepted messages, and like Williams’ The Glass Menagerie turned inside out: instead of a mother pushing a reluctant daughter out into the world, a mother repeatedly sabotages a frustrated daughter’s attempts to leave. But one thing is constant between Glass and Beauty Queen: both daughters are pushed to embody their mothers’ self-image. And as we learn more about Maureen’s past struggles, and how she ended up living with Mag, the push-pull bond between them seems all the more toxic but inescapable.

Francis O’Connor’s set felt like an externalization of Maureen’s inner life. The run-down, hopeless charcoal gray of Maureen and Mag’s rural home fittingly manages to suck the color out of anything that might threaten to flicker with life. Even the books on a couple of low shelves lay in toppled, sloppy piles, like the newspapers that provide a makeshift TV stand. In this way, items that might otherwise spark inspiration or the imagination are rendered powerless within this stagnant, contained world.

James Ingalls' lighting design, meanwhile, deftly guided us through the story while simultaneously offering a glimpse of teasing hope, by way of the blue sky projected above O’Connor’s set. And the production’s costume design (also by O’Connor) delineated the characters’ sense of themselves in the world: Maureen’s dressed in baggy, drab sweaters and long skirts with boots (until she buys a new, staid-but-more-flattering black dress to attend a party); shifty Mag is dressed in dark layers that seem to have no beginning nor end; Pato stands apart -- as a visitor from the outside world -- by way of his crisp attire, and the way the clothes fit his body; and Pato’s message delivering brother Ray (Aaron Monaghan), whose bright red and white jacket visually indicate his vitality, and thus his incongruity in Mag and Maureen’s home.

Director Garry Hynes allowed the script’s most comic moments build and breathe so that when the dark moments come -- and let’s be honest, with Irish dark comedies, you know they’re coming -- the tonal shift is all the more harrowing and stark.

Druid’s terrific ensemble was more than up to the task of navigating these hairpin turns. Monaghan provided blustery comic relief as a spark plug of a man who’s consistently baffled by what happens within Mag and Maureen’s walls. Rea’s Pato, meanwhile, was a gentle man shut out from two worlds: he can’t stay in Ireland, where there’s no work, but he also feels painfully out of place in England; and Rea’s winning performance during an inevitably awkward “morning after” scene in the play, during which he makes slack-jawed Mag her breakfast, managed to be both hilarious and moving. Mullen -- who was artistically living out the play’s anxiety about the daughter becoming the mother since she won a Tony Award in 1998 playing Maureen in the Broadway production -- plays Mag as an unflappable, immovable object in a rocking chair. And her most revealing moments came as Maureen brags about something Mag knows to be untrue. Instead of quietly letting the moment pass, and thus seeing her plan through, Mag smirks and pokes at Maureen, physically unable to contain her glee at her daughter’s secret pain. O’Sullivan, finally, stands tall at the play’s center, playing Maureen as a bitter woman who’s wholly resigned herself to her awful, circumscribed fate until the hint of hope arrives from London in a suit.

It may be strange to confess that while watching The Beauty Queen of Leenane, I kept thinking of Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher. Not because of the nature of their mother-daughter relationship -- they seemed, late in life, far more functional then Maureen and Mag, not to mention more capable of joy -- but because their bond with each other always seemed far more intense and powerful than any they could possibly establish with anyone else.

Beauty Queen takes this notion to a darker end, of course, but the main principle remains: when our identity is deeply, inextricably integrated with another’s, that person takes a significant part of us with them when they go.

Jenn McKee is a former staff arts reporter for The Ann Arbor News, where she primarily covered theater and film events, and also wrote general features and occasional articles on books and music.

Here’s to Collaboration: Behind the Scenes of the Kickshaw Lab

Fri, 03/10/2017 - 4:15pm by Sara W

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to sit in on a rehearsal of Kickshaw Theatre’s new devised work: Here’s to You, Here’s to Me. I work with the organization, but I’ve never been in a rehearsal room where “devising” is happening. It was awesome.

After a group warm-up, the actors took the stage and performed the material they have developed so far. The story is still being shaped (and may change between now and the performance), but it’s loosely framed as a party of friends, celebrating and exploring the ritual of toasting. The show includes original songs and dialogue that the cast has collectively written in rehearsal. One song, a toast to a cast member’s mom, was re-worked during rehearsal. The ensemble re-ordered verses, changed lyrics, and improvised musical riffs and harmonies. In the end, the song came out sounding like a 1980s rock anthem!

Each cast member brings unique talents and perspectives to the group. Mona Burns is a master storyteller, Dan Bilich is a master musician, Natalie Sevick is a fabulous singer and actor, and Aral Gribble is an all around experienced performer and improviser. Each has contributed stories, dialogue, songs, and ideas for the show.

Lynn Lammers, the director, focuses on the structure of the show, finding a way to pull the pieces together into a thematic, cohesive 30-minute performance.

The story, according to Lynn, is about the hubbub of life. People have different experiences and ideologies. Most of us have people we love dearly, with whom we disagree. The show is a bombastic, celebratory, and joyous show about the messiness of life.

After running through existing material, it was time to forge ahead into the unknown. Watching the cast work was fascinating. In some ways, it reminded me of watching children play: roles are decided, ground rules are laid, and the rest is worked out through imaginative play. For example, to craft a new scene, the cast would agree on the general framework (time period, basic plot points), and then each actor would jump in with ideas.

Next, they would improvise the scene, with Dan jamming along on guitar, composing a musical score as the scene unfolded. Sometimes there was conflict and disagreement, sometimes a suggestion would be dismissed outright. It looked a little chaotic from the outside, but a story emerged! What started as one idea, developed into something much bigger and more artful than any one person alone could have created. It was the most collaborative form of theater I’ve witnessed. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

Heidi Bennett is the Connectivity Director at the Kickshaw Theatre.

Here's To You, Here's To Me runs Thursdays - Sundays, March 16 - April 2 at the Heidelberg Club Above, Arbor Brewing Company Brewpub, and Agave Tequila Bar. Tickets are $10, showtimes and locations vary. More information is at www.kickshawtheatre.org. This production is sponsored through a grant from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation and the Heidelberg Restaurant.

Wild Swan Theater's family concert truly is "An Afternoon of Ann Arbor’s Best" -- and its plays are pretty fun, too

Wed, 03/08/2017 - 9:20am by christopherporter

Sandy Ryder represents some of the best things about Ann Arbor. She's someone who came to town for school, never left, and then went on to create businesses and good works that she has generously shared with the community for decades.

After graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in theater, Ryder taught, worked as a clown and a mime, and did improv with a children’s theater group. In 1979, she started Say Cheese Cheesecakes bakery (which closed in 2006 under different owners). Then in 1980, she cofounded Wild Swan Theater with Hilary Cohen.

Over the past 27 years, Wild Swan has distinguished itself as a place for all people, especially children with disabilities.

“My favorite thing is to have everything accessible -- workshops, traveling shows, everything," Ryder said. "We have ASL shadowed into the show, kids with visual impairments can come to a touch tour on stage. Everyone can share the experience together, everyone can enjoy the play.”

Wild Swan Theater produces an impressive amount of plays every year. Most recently the theater troupe performed Drum Me a Story, a play Wild Swan created about 15 years ago.

“It is a collection of three tales from West Africa," Ryder said. "Between each story, there is a different drum or West African instrument and the kids tap out rhythms or a call and response.”

The play will now go on a tour of schools in Saline and then onto Lapeer.

“We have about 15 shows that are always being toured,” Ryder said, naming Peter Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh, and Rosie the Riveter among the many productions schools can contact the theater to arrange a performance.

Wild Swan will next present Rosie the Riveter March 9-11 at its home stage, Towsley Auditorium at Washtenaw Community College. The play is about four women working at Michigan's Willow Run plant building aircraft in World War Two. “They are building the B24 bomber,” Ryder said. “From beginning to end, it took about 55 minutes to construct the entire plane. Then the women sometimes flew the planes over Europe!”

Playwright Jeff Duncan wrote the script after interviewing a dozen women who worked at the plant during the war. The script was based on the stories these women told him, with four actresses playing four characters.

“When we did the show last year, we had many real life Rosies in attendance and we brought them up on stage,” Ryder said, and the women received a standing ovation. “I feel like they finally got what they should have always had -- respect and gratitude for what they did.”

Rosie the Riveter is suitable for kids in upper elementary and older, Ryder said, because “it’s kind of an adult show, in that one big part of the story is how a white woman has a hard time working alongside a black woman. We want the kids to be a bit older [than a typical Wild Swan audience] so that they can understand what it was like the 1940s and how segregated things really were. Through the course of the play, we get to see the white woman’s transformation to understanding issues better. This gives kids the experience of seeing someone change right before their eyes.”

Wild Swan will also present Jack and the Beanstalk March 22-25 and, later, Marketplace Stories: Folktales From the Arab World May 4-6.

But the other big Wild Swan event in March is the theater’s annual benefit concert, An Afternoon of Ann Arbor’s Best, which will be held March 19 at The Ark from 1-3 pm. “We wanted to do a family fundraiser,” Ryder said. “Most of our audience is made up of families, so we have an afternoon show that everyone can enjoy.”

In her typically generous fashion, Ryder said An Afternoon of Ann Arbor’s Best "really is made up of these amazing people Wild Swan has worked with in the past. ... The lineup includes Madcat [Peter Ruth], who did the music for Along the Tracks, which is a play about Harriet Tubman, and Gemini, who did music for Coming to America which is a play about immigration from various parts of the world.” The show also includes Frank Pahl, Emily Slomovits, and Laura Pershin Raynor.

It is only fitting that one of Ann Arbor's best, Sandy Ryder, is a part of this event, too.

Patti Smith is a special education teacher and writer who lives in Ann Arbor with her husband and cats.

Tickets for "An Afternoon of Ann Arbor’s Best" and other Wild Swan productions are available at wildswantheater.org, over the phone at 734-646-8623, or at the door the day of the event. Related: Martin Bandyke's 2009 profile in The Ann Arbor News, "Behind the scenes at Wild Swan Theater."

Ellipsis Theatre fought a plague throughout its house to produce Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night"

Tue, 03/07/2017 - 12:40pm by christopherporter

Ellipsis Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night has been beset by a tragedy of the sort usually only seen performed on the stage of Shakespearean prose -- namely, a plague.

Many of the actors caught serious cases of the flu, to the point where the show did not go on during the first weekend of its run and was pushed back a full week. The night I saw the show, one actor (playing Sir Toby) had just joined the cast in the last three days and another actor who was playing Orsino was doubling for Sir Andrew since the original Sir Andrew had turned green just hours before.

Such extreme changes in performance schedules will almost certainly affect audience levels for the run, which is a shame; I strongly recommend that you go see Twelfth Night this upcoming weekend if you can, assuming that the cast has not all fainted into comas.

The direction by Joanna Hastings is very good, especially in two broad categories: she successfully places 12 people on the stage who all appear to at least passably understand what they’re saying (this is not often true of amateur actors in other Shakespearean productions that I’ve seen), and she has modernized the setting without resorting to stale or nonsensical gimmicks. (For an example of those gimmicks, I once saw a version of Macbeth where the witches were played by seven people and Macbeth was played by two more people, all were costumed in goth steampunk chic, and the director had not added anything of value to the play other than successfully casting as many actors and actresses as he could fit onto the stage.)

While there are many props used in this production of Twelfth Night, they all help to illuminate Shakespeare’s words and intent, or modify that intent to the modern palette. This fits with the mission of the Ellipsis Theatre, which is to bring old stories and theatrical traditions to life in new ways.

According to Hastings, she “chose a fictionalized version of New York for our setting, because the shipwreck and unconventional arrival of the twins in Illyria put us in mind of refugees coming to this country, being welcomed by the sight of the Statue of Liberty and what she stands for, and being integrated into the extraordinary and diverse society that a city like New York offers.” The set of a subway station is effective, the costumes are for the most part fantastic, and the posters and signs designed by Iris Hastings look professionally done.

Of the leads, there are quite a few stars -- Feste, played by Scott Screws who co-founded Ellipsis, is brilliant as the wise fool philosophizing and singing about the wisdom of tomfoolery and the folly of wisdom, here modernized into a homeless man sleeping in a subway station who sings for spare change. Shakespeare’s plays often dealt with philosophical ideas only tangentially related to the stories he was telling, and in the script of Twelfth Night he spent a great deal of time poking at the intelligence required by a fool to smartly entertain.

Markham Isler plays the role of Sir Toby with a mixture of puppy-like wonderment in his eyes and a voice like Latka from Taxi. The effect is adorable, especially when he has written an angry letter challenging a fellow suitor to a duel for a lady’s hand and spends the whole time mouthing the words of his letter to a stuffed elephant that he carries around as a security blanket. In contrast, Isler as Orsino is handsome, assured, and denies being easy caricatured.

New addition to the cast Sean Rodriguez Sharpe is excellent as Sir Toby, stumbling around in an alcoholic stupor cracking drunken jokes for most of the play, yet switching into a formidable foe instantaneously. The women leads Mouse Courtois and Krystle Dellihue as Viola and Olivia, respectively, are also capable actors, though they’re not given quite the same quality of material to work with. Of the smaller roles, most are acted well or passably, with standout performances from character actors Breon Canady (who deserves more stage time than her three roles allow) and Karl Sikkenga as Malvolio.

If I have one main criticism about this show, it’s the running time: Twelfth Night runs for a full 2 1/2 hours, and the last 20 minutes do drag a bit as the denouement is oh-so-painstakingly revealed. This is not a result of the acting or the direction, but merely the way Shakespeare wrote the ending.

Please don’t let this stop you from going to see it -- as Hastings said about the play, she chose Twelfth Night because of the “streak of sadness amongst the hilarity, the wisdom in the foolery, the multiple facets of love.”

This production succeeds at bringing these ideas to life, and is highly entertaining to boot.

Toby Tieger has directed, acted in, and written plays over the last 10 years, and sees theater as often as he can. He is a bookshelver/processor with the Ann Arbor District Library.

Ellipsis Theatre’s ”Twelfth Night” runs March 9-12 at Theatre Nova, 410 W Huron St, Ann Arbor. The Thursday through Saturday shows are at 8 pm; the Sunday performance is at 7 pm. For more information and tickets, visit the play’s Facebook Event page or email ellipsistheatreboxoffice@gmail.com. Ellipsis’ next show in May will be Bertolt Brecht's “The Caucasian Chalk Circle.”

"Giselle" is a demanding work for any dancer, but Ballet Chelsea’s students are thriving in it

Mon, 03/06/2017 - 9:25am by christopherporter

Because of the weight of its subject matter and the demands of its production, Giselle is seldom tackled in student performance. Yet, here is Ballet Chelsea, a relatively new pre-professional company, mounting a full-length Giselle on March 11 and 12 at the CHS Performing Arts Complex.

Giselle is serious business -- and I mean that in a couple of ways.

First, there’s the matter of its plot. Giselle, a young peasant girl, falls in love with Albrecht, whom she meets when his hunting party passes near her village. He promises to marry her, but before Act I is over she has learned the extent of his deception: he is not just some hunter, he is a duke, and furthermore, he is already betrothed to Bathilde. Giselle goes mad and dies of a broken heart -- both literal and figurative (the idea that she has a weak heart and should not dance so much was planted early in the act).

In Act II, Giselle has become a Wili, the spirit of a young woman jilted at the altar. She is not alone; there’s a whole gang of Wilis and they are out for revenge on the men who betrayed them. Their queen orders Giselle to dance with Albrecht until he dies of exhaustion. Instead, Giselle stays with him until the dawn, when Wilis lose their power, thus saving his life. She returns to the grave and he, presumably, to a life of guilt and remorse.

So the story is a far cry from the fluffy stuff of, say, The Nutcracker. Furthermore, it is a formidable production to tackle.

Dating from 1841, it shares the Romantic-era interest in things wild and outside the realm of reason and, more specifically, in the duality of the real and the supernatural. The character of Giselle embodies both; she is a real peasant girl and a spirit from beyond the grave. This is a difficult role, awarded to ballerinas at the height of their powers. Not only must Giselle have considerable acting chops, she must have the controlled technique that allows her to float so freely and land so softly that we believe she is not of this world.

Then there’s the matter of the corps de ballet, that group of seemingly identical women -- the Wilis in Giselle, but swans or snowflakes or fairies in other ballets -- who move as one body. If they are not in perfect unison, their lines and formations absolutely pure, then the illusion of a host of spirits is fractured.

Ballet Chelsea Artistic Director Wendi DuBois acknowledged Giselle is an ambitious choice but explained that she wanted to challenge her dancers, to develop certain qualities and strengths in them. She wanted her students Stephanie Dehoorne and Lauren Yordanich to have the experience of dancing the role of Giselle (each will perform it one night), acknowledging that “this is something they will most likely never do again.”

When DuBois talked about her dancers -- both the younger ones and the select 10 who, as members of Ballet Chelsea’s Professional Training Program, take at least eight ballet classes a week in addition to their long hours of rehearsal on Saturday and Sunday -- her commitment to these students’ growth is obvious. Her desire to push their dancing abilities is equaled by her evident interest in developing their work ethic, their capacity for empathy, and their desire for excellence, regardless of whether they ultimately become professional dancers: “If you give 100% of yourself all the time to the endeavors you care about, you become a stronger person,” DuBois said. She emphasized that this Giselle is about the learning process for her students, not about a perfect, professional-level product.

DuBois’s talk impressed me; it made me thrilled for her students who have this generous, knowledgeable, articulate woman on their side, constructing experiences for them that will affect them so profoundly. What her talk didn’t do is prepare me for the extremely high quality of dancing I witness in rehearsal, two weeks before the first curtain goes up on Giselle. Their dancing was intensely satisfying.

I watched Dehoorne, a high school junior, and Patrick McCrae, a dance major at EMU, rehearse the Act II scenes in which they encounter each other at Giselle’s gravesite. (Yordanich, a senior, was at an audition for the Boston Ballet’s pre-professional program on the day I was there. Many of DuBois’s dancers go on to professional ballet companies and top college dance programs after high school.)

To be sure, Dubois and her Assistant Artistic Director Sarah Eckart gave their dancers plenty of notes, but they were of the nitpicky sort; all the big stuff is under control. The lines and placement of their bodies were pure and correct, the delicate footwork was precise, and when McCrae lifted Dehoorne or supported her in a turn, the actions were seamless.

Dubois told him, “You’re doing a good job putting her down. If I hear it at all, she’s human. And she’s not; she’s mist.”

As a watcher, I trusted them -- a different feeling from the anxiety and suspense I feel watching students who are struggling with something beyond their reach.

Even more impressive than their solid technique was the way they handled the expressive elements of this dancing. McCrae’s face was a shifting storm of apprehension and love. For Dehoorne, the character of Giselle resided in her body. I knew who she is and how she felt by watching her exquisitely articulated arms, shoulders, and upper body -- and her soft landings -- more than her facial expression.

Watching DuBois coach this aspect of the dancing was fascinating. She told them that when they are pleading -- hands clasped and moving forward and back in front of their chests -- that the motion must reverberate in their chests and torsos. It’s a movement from the heart, or maybe from the gut. DuBois’s explained to Dehoorne why an arm goes where it does: “You don’t want to leave him, you don’t want to leave him. You want to be with him.”

Although DuBois gave this type of pointed theatrical coaching and said that they have looked at the minute details of every scene, she also left some decisions up to the dancers. Famously, Giselle’s “mad scene” at the end of Act I is unique to each dancer who takes the role. In keeping with that tradition, both girls who will dance Giselle have been coached in certain aspects of how the peasant maiden goes crazy, but much is left to them.

DuBois has encouraged them to look at “every version of the mad scene under the sun” and make some of their own choices; their mad scenes will be their own. Similarly, when Dehoorne asked how high she should look in a particular moment, DuBois replied, “It’s up to you. You’re trying to reach, you’re trying to get out of your situation. You’re trying to cheat your own death.” Dehoorne’s understanding of these motivations will dictate how high she looks.

Although I did not attend rehearsals for the corps de ballet sections, I am confident that these scenes will be of a very high quality as well. Last year DuBois had her students perform Les Sylphides, a Romantic-style ballet (although choreographed early in the 20th century) that is full of exacting corps work. Rehearsing and performing in the corps de ballet of both Les Sylphides and Giselle necessarily imparts to these girls some of the most important skills of this type of dancing: subsuming self to the whole and breathing as one with 15 other people.

More prosaically, they must also learn to engage their peripheral vision like mad and develop a high tolerance for standing on one leg for a really long time; the corps de ballet frames the action of Giselle and Albrecht, standing motionless in pretty poses while the soloists dance. DuBois recounted how in the last rehearsal she told the corps dancers, “After Albrecht does his solo variation, you may take one step and be on the other leg. And they go, ‘Thank you!’”

DuBois’s efforts to push Ballet Chelsea forward is yielding results, not only in the quality of the company’s productions but also in its visibility. After a successful collaboration with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra last fall, the two organizations plan to present The Nutcracker together this December. Performing with a live symphony orchestra will be yet another unusually demanding and sophisticated experience for the company’s pre-professional dancers, and a boon for local dance audiences who usually have to travel much farther for this sort of full-scale production.

From 1993-2004, Veronica Dittman Stanich danced in New York and co-produced The Industrial Valley Celebrity Hour in Brooklyn. Now, PhD in hand, she writes about dance and other important matters.

Ballet Chelsea’s “Giselle” will be performed on March 11 at 7 pm and March 12 at 2 pm at the CHS Performing Arts Complex, 740 N Freer Rd., Chelsea, Michigan. For tickets and more information, visit balletchelsea.org.

Ann Arbor Civic Theater’s “Almost, Maine” offers 9 emotional small-town snapshots

Fri, 03/03/2017 - 7:55am by christopherporter

John Cariani’s Almost, Maine is set in a fictional town so named because it’s so far north that it’s almost in Canada. It’s distant from the urban chatter of Boston or Montreal, but that physical distance also suggests the emotional distance that the play’s characters have to bridge.

“Distance is a big issue in the play,” said Elizabeth Docel, who plays two parts in the production. “The town is distant from everywhere and the play is about the distance between people.”

The Ann Arbor Civic Theater is presenting Cariani’s play March 9-12 at the Arthur Miller Theatre. It’s a play that has won wide support at regional and school theaters for its mix of comedy, drama, and a little magic realism.

“When I first read the play, it was so different from what I usually do,” said director Kat Walsh. “I usually do Shakespeare and works centering on social justice, and I found this play simple, sweet, and quirky.”

As she looked deeper into the play she also found a running theme.

“As I became more engaged in this work I found that there were these characters who would pursue acts of bravery that characters in other works I directed would not,” she said. “Because to allow yourself to be fully known by someone else, to be vulnerable for a time, to end a relationship when it’s not working that is extremely hard the very thing that most people run away from, so I found something beautiful in the simplicity, but it’s a call to action to all of us to be able to live authentically in that way.”

Almost, Maine is structured in an unusual way. Rather than a running story through two or three acts, it’s a series of nine vignettes, all set on a winter’s day in north Maine. The action takes place on front porches, in living rooms, and in the chilly outdoors.

“All the characters know each other in some way and it’s about community as much as it’s about individual relationships, about how people choose to engage with each other,” Walsh said. “They learn from each other and they learn about themselves through their relationship with others.”

Walsh and the actors are working with a play in which each vignette has its own dramatic arc in the space of 10 minutes rather than over two or three hours.

“It’s been a wonderful stretch as director and I’m fortunate to be surrounded by actors and designers who are really committed to telling these people’s stories and that’s what it’s all about, telling these stories and do them justice,” Walsh said.

Cariani insists that theater groups restrain themselves from trying to create Maine types and instead emphasize the gently dramatized universal themes.

In his playwright’s notes, he writes, “The people of Almost, Maine, are not simpletons. They are not hicks or rednecks. They are not quaint, quirky eccentrics. They don’t wear funny clothes and funny hats. They don’t have funny Maine accents. They are not ‘Down Easters.’ They are not fishermen of lobstermen. They don’t wear galoshes and rain hats. They don’t say ‘Ayuh.’”

He emphasizes that the people of Almost, Maine are ordinary people. They work hard, have a sense of dignity and they’re smart without the cynicism associated with city life.

The play is usually cast with eight actors, but Walsh chose not to double cast parts with two exceptions, to provide for more actors.

“It’s exciting to see this group of people come together to explore how to tell these stories,” Walsh said.

Docel plays two characters, the fragile but likable Gayle in the “Getting It Back” scene and the tougher Rhonda in the “Seeing the Thing” scene.

Docel said there is a challenge playing two such different parts and working with two different actors to give the right tone and interpretation to the play.

“I love it, that intense aspect of it, like we’re running a marathon,” she said.

In “Getting It Back,” Gayle is concerned that her long relationship with Lendall is not moving forward as she would like.

Chris Grimm plays Lendall.

“Lendall is kind of straightforward,” Grimm said. “He tends to take things a day at a time with a singular focus. He’s been with a longtime girlfriend for 11 years, read into that what you like. But he’s an honorable being in the end.

“I feel it’s been a little harder to create a character with depth having just this snapshot. We’re trying to pack a lot meaning into a couple minutes.”

Matt Miller plays Dave opposite Docel in the “Seeing the Thing” scene.

“Dave is interesting,” he said. “His whole thing is small town. He drives a snowmobile, drinks beer, he’s into sports. He’s more open in some ways and doesn’t fit into the stereotype view of small-town people.”

He agrees that the short scenes are a challenge.

“It’s harder to come up with those layers of meaning in minutes,” he said. “In a longer play you study what links this to that. Here it is compressed in a short period. You’re intended to experience the characters in short bursts and need to keep going back over it, amping up what works.”

Grimm said he wasn’t sure at first about the play, which some critics find a little “corny” though it has won a wide audience.

“It’s grown on me,” he said. “I had seen it years ago and later encountered the fandom of it. The production I saw was on the corny side, a little syrupy. But I’ve worked with Kat before and I thought she would bring a different view to it, something more multidimensional.”

Matt Miller said there’s more depth to the play than a simple reading suggests.

“The script, just reading it, does not do justice at all. It reads corny,” Miller said. “It would be easy for a cast to let it be that way. From working on the show, I want to emphasize the moments that are intense.”

Docel said the play has grown on her as well.

“I’m not drawn to corny plays,” she said.

Walsh said that Almost, Maine is the kind of play where an audience is laughing one minute and holding its breath the next.

She said it was important for the production not to be two dramatic but also not to overemphasize the play’s sweetness.

“I tend to go dark and have to get back to the sweetness,” she said.

Other cast members are Andrew Benson, Matthew Flickinger, Lawrence Havelka, Chris Joseph, Rachael Kohl, Stephanie Laurinec, Joe Lope, Scott Mooney, Sara Rose, Codi Sharp, Megan Shiplett and Michelle Weiss.

Hugh Gallagher has written theater and film reviews over a 40-year newspaper career and was most recently managing editor of the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers in suburban Detroit.

”Almost, Maine” will be presented Thursday, March 9 at 7:30 pm; Friday and Saturday, March 10-11 at 8 pm; and Sunday, March 12 at 2 pm at the Arthur Miller Theatre on the North Campus of the University of Michigan. Tickets are $22 for adults, $20 for seniors and $17 for Thursday tickets. Student tickets are $11 for all performances. Tickets are available online at a2ct.org, by calling the office at 734-971-2228, and at the A2CT office at 322 W. Ann St., Ann Arbor.